My hands clenched into fists. The scarlet red blood that was roaring like a fierce lion came surging through my veins. My bloodshot eyes came bulging out of the eye sockets and my teeth shut close together to such an extent that they started grinding each other. I was on the verge of a severe breakout as I couldn’t hold back anymore. I was furious! I opened my mouth and screamed to the top of my lungs. The intensity of my voice was so high that it undoubtedly travelled hundreds of miles, scaring every living creature on the planet. Multiple objects became victims to my rage as they were broken into a million tiny fragments. It seemed as if I would kill anyone that came before me and wouldn’t even give it a second thought. This was not the first time I had such an experience. In fact such intense anger episodes were really common. It was impairing my functioning in every domain of life; social, occupational and other important areas of functioning. My life was slowly progressing towards its end and I needed immediate help!

            I started consulting a psychologist for anger management. After giving a detailed case history, I was asked to practice a few anger management techniques that proved highly fruitful in helping me control my anger, no matter how wrath provoking the circumstances were. Just like me, all of us experience intense rage frequently in our lives, but what matters the most is how we express it. Violent expression of anger can vandalize our lives forever while managing one’s anger could make one function effectively in all domains of life. Hence, here are a few techniques that would help you to manage your anger and ultimately lead a successful life:

• Identify the factors that trigger your anger (like long traffic jams, rude comments from others or being overtired) and work towards structuring your routine in a manner that the frequency of encountering these triggers decreases. For example, you can take a different route to work, keep yourself surrounded with friends who genuinely support you and implement time management strategies to reduce work piling up until the deadline is just around the corner.
• Recognize the warning signs of anger and deal with them immediately. The warning signs are the things that you experience before encountering a heavily packed episode of anger like an increased heart rate, face becoming red or hot, clenching of the fists etc. Hence, whenever these signs occur, you should quickly drink water, practice deep breathing or distract yourself so that your anger does not surge to its boiling point.
• When you are encountering a situation which may lead to frustration later on, tackle the situation quickly before it reaches the boiling point by talking to a trusted family member or a friend that can console you and cool down your anger by providing effective solutions to the problem.
• Restructure your thoughts to make them more realistic. For example, thinking that ‘I can’t stand this traffic jam! It will ruin my whole day’ would provoke more frustration so it should be changed to ‘There are hundreds of people in this town so inevitably there would heavy traffic, maybe I should wake up a little early from now on to avoid frustration at work.’

All these simple techniques could surely help in managing your anger. Remember Team Pukaar understands your feelings and is always ready to help you. Thus, if you feel frustrated at any point in your life, don’t hesitate to contact Pukaar who will always be there for you!

Written By: Rida Irfan